Kelly W.K. The History of Russia: from the Earliest Period to the Present Time. Volume 2
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A.D.
1839]
TIIE TEEATY 01"
TTNKIAR SKELESSI
SET
ASIDE.
403
Mohammed
Ali was
prudent
and
moderate
;
in
the midst of
his
triumphs,
he
only
asked to be
hereditary
and
independent
ruler
of
Egypt,
and
to
retain in his
possession
the
pashalics
of
Adana
and
Syria.
Prance
was favourable to
these
preten-
sions,
which
were discountenanced
by England,
and Russia
did
not
seriously oppose
them,
for
they
were not at variance
with
her own
interests,
and
nothing
could be more
gratifying
to
Nicholas
than
to see the
constitutional
government
of
France
isolated from
the
rest
of
Europe.
The
result was that
a
convention
was concluded
at
London
on the
15th of
July,
1840,
between
Great
Britain,
Austria,
Prussia, Eussia,
and
Turkey,
which
recited
that
the four
powers
were
"
animated
by
the desire
of
maintaining
the
integrity
and
independence
of
the
Ottoman
empire,
as
a
security
for the
peace
of
Eu-
rope."
The convention of
London also
impliedly
set aside
the
treaty
of
L
T
nkiar
Skelessi,
for
it
recognised
"
the ancient
rule
of the Ottoman
empire,
in virtue
of which
it
has at all
times
been
prohibited
for
ships
of
war of
foreign
powers
to
enter
the straits of the Dardanelles
and the
Bosphorus."
(
)n
his
part,
the sultan undertook
"
to
maintain this
principle
invariably
established as
the
ancient rule of
the
empire,
and,
as
long
as the Porte is at
peace,
to admit
no
foreign
ship
of
war into the straits of the
Bosphorus
and
Dardanelles."
The
original treaty required
the Porte to shut
the
straits
when
Russia teas at
war,
and that
obligation
was now removed.
In
the course
of
these
negotiations,
Baron
Brunow,
the
Russian ambassador at the
court of
St.
James's,
pro-
posed
that,
if
armed
intervention should be
necessary,
"the
defence
of
Constantinople
and
the
Bosphorus
should
be
assigned
to
Eussia alone." Lord
Palmerston
required
that
in
such
an
event
the
Dardanelles
should
be
opened
to
the
fleets
of
the
co-operating
powers,
when
the
Bosphorus
was
open
to
the
Russian
forces.
But
this
was
a
demand
which
the
baron
was
not
authorised to
concede,
and
which
he
re-
ferred
to
St.
Petersburg.
In the
mean
time,
he
urged
the ne-
cessity
of
instant recourse to
active
measures,
"
leaving
the
question
about the
Dardanelles
to be
settled,
if
and when
it
should arise."
He even
urged
the
British
government
to
take some
active
measures
against
the
pasha,
without
await-
ing
the
conclusion
of
any
formal
agreement
with
the
other
powers.
But the
British
minister
rejected
both
proposals,
2
d2
404 HISTOEY OF EUSSIA.
[CH.
LXX.
and made
the
acquiescence
of
Russia in
his
demands
as
to the
Dardanelles a
sine
qua
non. The court of
St.
Peters-
burg
could not have
rejected
that demand
without
renewing
the
distrust which it
was so anxious
to
remove,
and
after a
little consideration it
gave
way
;
but
only
on
the
condition
that a
point
should be
determined in the
Sea of
Marmora,
beyond
which
the
ships
of
war
permitted
to
pass
the
Darda-
nelles should
not
be at
liberty
to advance
towards
Constan-
tinople
and
the
Bosphorus.
She felt
the
jealousy
of
a
lover,
and
could
not
with
complacency permit
any
one else
to
approach
the
object
of
her
affections. This
puerile
demand
was
obviously
untenable,
and is worth
recording
only
as an
indication
of character
and
sentiment.*
France
had
been no
party
to
the
convention
of
July,
1840
;
but on the 13th
July,
1841,
this state of
isolation
terminated,
and
by
a new
treaty
of
that date the five
powers
bound
themselves to
respect
the
rights
and
promote
the consolida-
tion of the
Ottoman
empire.
The
capture
of Acre
by
Sir
Robert
Stopford,
and the
successes of commodore
Napier
in
Syria,
soon demonstrated the weakness and
prostrated
the
strength
of Mehemet
Ali.
Peace was concluded.
The
re-
volted
pasha
was
confirmed in the
hereditary
government
of
Egypt
;
but
he had to surrender the island of Candia
and
the
pashalics
of Adana and
Syria,
with the
exception
of
the
ancient
Palestine.
The result
of an
expedition
sent
by
Russia
against
Khiva
in
the
year
1840
may
serve to
allay
the
fears of
those
who
dream of
danger
to
the
British
empire
in
India from a
pos-
sible Russian
invasion. General
Perofsky,
who
marched at
the head
of
6000
infantry
with
10,000
baggage
camels,
could
not even reach
the
territory
of
Khiva,
which
is
separated
from
Orenburg
by
four hundred
miles
of salt
desert.
The
disasters suffered
by
his
troops
obliged
him
to
retrace
his
steps
without
having
advanced
further
than
the
Ac
Boulak,
the
last
outpost
erected
by
the Russians
in
1839,
a
hundred
miles
from
the
Emba.
The
obstacles encountered
by
his
small
army
were
beyond
all
description.
The cold
was fear-
ful,
being
40°
below
zero
of the
centegrade
thermometer
;
the camels
could
scarcely
advance
through
the snow
;
and
*
"
Progress
of
Russia
in
the
East,"
p.
133.
A.D.
1844]
MEMORANDUM
ON TIIE
EASTERN
QUESTION.
405
tlie movements
of the
troops
were
constantly impeded
by
hurricanes
of
extraordinary
violence.
The fact that such
an
expedition
was undertaken
in the
depth
of
winter,
solely
for
the
purpose
of
having
fresh
water,
may
enable
one
to
guess
at
the
difficulties
of a
march
over
the same
ground
in summer.
Spring
is a
season
unknown
in all the vast
plains
of Southern
Eussia
;
intense frost is there
abruptly
succeeded
by tropical
heat,
and
a
fortnight
is
generally
sufficient
to
dry
up
the
small
streams
and
the
stagnant
waters
produced by
the
melting
of the
snows,
and
to scorch
up
the thin
coating
of
pasturage
which
for a brief while had covered
the
steppes.
The
emperor
of Eussia
paid
a
visit
to
England
in
1844,
and
the
long-familiar
"
Eastern
Question"
became
the
subject
of
conversation between his
majesty
and some
members
of the
then
existing government,
iso
particular
difficulty respect-
ing
it had
then
arisen or seemed
impending.
No action
was
called
for
in
regard
to
it.
The
communication
made
by
the
emperor
was
accordingly
nothing
more than an
explana-
tion
of
the
general
principles
of
policy
to which
he
professed
his
anxiety
to
adhere.
After the
emperor's
return
to Eussia
the
substance of this
communication
on
his
part
was em-
bodied in
a
memorandum,
which
was transmitted
to Lord
Aberdeen,
then minister
for
foreign
affairs.
Eeing simply
a
memorandum of
verbal
communications,
and not
being
a
document on which it
was asked or
proposed
that
any
action
should be
taken,
it
appears
to
have been shown
only
to
those
ministers
with
whom
the
conversations had
been
held. The
two other
ministers
were
Sir
Eobert Peel and
the
Duke
of
Wellington
;
and
if the tonus of
that
document
had remained
still
unknown,
those
three
names,
or
any
one
of
them,
would
have been
a
sufficient
guarantee
that
it
contained
nothing
which
it was
unbecoming
an
English
minister
to
receive.
Accordingly
it
may
be
safely
said,
that
if the
emperor
of
Eussia had
adhered to
the
principles
he
professed
in this
memorandum,
the
present
war
would
never
have arisen.
It
Contains
these
main
propositions
:
That
the
maintenance
of
the
Porte,
in
its
existing
inde-
pendence
and its
existing
extent
of
territorv,
is
a
great
object
of
European policy
:
that,
in
order
to
this
mainte-
nance,
the several
powers
should abstain
from
making
demands
upon
it,
conceived
in
a
selfish
interest,
or from
408
HISTORY OF
RUSSIA.
[CH.
LXX.
assuming
towards it
an attitude of
"
exclusive dictation
:"
that
in the
event of
the
Porte
giving
to
any
one
of
the
powers just
cause of
complaint,
that
power
should be
aided
by
the
rest
in
its endeavours
to have such cause
removed,
so
that all
occasion
of
conflict
should be
avoided : that all
the
European
powers
should
urge
on
the Porte
the
duty
of con-
ciliating
its Christian
subjects,
and should
at the same
time
use
all
their influence with those
subjects
to
keep
them to
their
allegiance
:
that
in the event of
any
unforeseen
calamity
befalling
the Turkish
empire,
Russia
and
England
should
agree together
as to the course
to
be
pursued
:
lastly,
the
memorandum
suggests
that
it would be wise to
provide
against
such
an event
by anticipation,
and to
come
in
respect
of it
to
some
previous agreement.
No
such
agreement
was come to in
consequence
of
this
memorandum.
It
remained
simply
as a declaration
and
explanation
of
the
ideas entertained
by
the
emperor
of
Prussia
on a
subject
of
great
interest to
Europe.
It
was
communicated
as
such
by
Lord Aberdeen
to the
French
minister.
It
was transferred to the
hands
of
each
secretary
of state for
foreign
affairs who succeeded
to office
;
and
by
all
of
them it
appears
to
have been
treated as
a document
containing
a declaration of
very
excellent
principles
to which
it would
be most
satisfactory
that the
emperor
of
Bussia
should
continue
his
adherence,
but which called for
no
action
or decision whatever
on
the
part
of the
English government.
It
is obvious
that until
some
event
happened,
or
some
dispute
arose which
was
likely
to disturb
the
relations
of
Turkey
with one or
more of the
European powers,
this must
have continued
to be the
view
taken of
the Russian
memo-
randum. And
when
any
such
dispute
should
arise,
the
only
practical
use
of the
memorandum would be to remind
Russia
of
her own
principles,
and to
help
her
to
put
them
into
prac-
tice.
It
was
not until
nearly
six
years
after the visit of the
emperor
of Russia
to
England
in
1844 that
any
such event
or
dispute
arose.
In
February,
1846,
an
insurrection
broke out in the
little
state of Cracow.
A
provisional
government
was
formed,
and
published
a
manifesto
of
its
principles.
"
Let
us
endea-
vour,"
it
proclaimed,
"
to
establish a
community
in
which
A.D.
1S46]
EXTINCTION
OF THE
REPUBLIC OF
CRACOW.
407
every
man
will
enjoy
the fruits
of
the
earth
according
to his
deserts
and
capacity
;
let all
privileges
cease,
let those
who
are
inferior
in
birth,
intelligence,
or
physical
strength,
obtain without
humiliation
the
unfailing
assistance
of
com-
monism,
which
will divide
among
all
the
absolute
proprietor-
ship
of
the
soil,
now
enjoyed
by
a small
minority.
Let all
imposts,
whether
paid
in
labour or in
money,
cease
;
and let
all
who have
fought
for their
country
have
an
indemnity
in
land
taken from the national
property."
This was
regarded
as
a
proclamation
of war
against
all
who
had
anything
to
lose.
Such was the terror
inspired,
that
the Austrian
ge-
neral, Collin,
who had entered
Cracow
at the
request
of the
senate,
evacuated
that
town
and
Podgorze
on the
approach
of
Count
Patelsky
at
the head
of 2000
peasants
armed
with
scythes.
The
senators fled with
the
troops.
A committee
of
public
safety
and
a
national
club were formed
;
for
this
first
success
emboldened the
people
to
hope
that
they
could
re-establish
the
whole of Poland.
But the Grallician
peasants,
who
had
long
hated
the
nobility,
now wreaked their
vengeance
on that
proscribed
class.
Their
mansions
were
burnt,
their
property
pdlaged,
their
wives
and children
massacred,
these
deeds
being
encouraged
by
the
Austrian
authorities,
who
rewarded
the
perpetrators
accord-
ing
to a
fixed tariff of
blood-money.
The insurrection
having
thus
been
put
down
by
means of subsidised
anarchy,
general
Collin
surrounded Cracow with
his
troops,
seized all the
posi-
tions
commanding
the
city,
and
threatened
bombardment
unless the
insurgents
immediately
surrendered,
and
gave
hostages
for
his
peaceable
admission into
the
city.
A
show
of
resistance
was
offered
by
the
dictator
"Wisziewsky,
who
gave
Mi-dtrs to
construct
barricades;
but
the
principal
in-
habitants
opposed
these
orders,
and
sent a
deputation
to
treat
with
the Austrian
general.
While
the
negotiations
were
pending,
B
Russian
battalion of
infantry,
supported
by
some
Cossacks,
entered the
city.
"Within three
days
they
were
followed
by
the
Prussians,
to
whom
the
insurgents
sur-
rendered
at
discretion.
The
fall
of Cracow excited a
lively
interest
in
London
and
Paris,
France
and
England
having
guaranteed
its
indepen-
dence as
parties
to
the
treaty
of
Vienna.
Lord
Palmerston
expressed
his
opinion
in the
following
terms
:
—
"
1
have
too
40S
HISTORY OF RUSSIA.
[CH.
LXX.
high
an
opinion
of the sentiments which must
animate
the
three
powers,
to doubt of their
acting
towards
Cracow in
any
other
spirit
than that of
the
treaty
of Vienna.
Those
go-
vernments
are too
intelligent
not to
perceive
that the
treaty
of
Vienna
must be
considered in its
integrity,
and
that no
government
is
permitted
to
make a choice
of
those articles
which it
may
wish
to
preserve
or
violate.
I
must
add,
that
if
there are
any powers
who have
signed
the
treaty
of
Vienna
who are
specially
interested in its faithful
execution,
they
are
the
German
powers
;
and
I am
sure that it
cannot have
escaped
the
perspicacity
of those
powers,
that
if
the
treaty
of Vienna
is not
good
on
the
Vistula,
it
must be
equally
bad
on the
Rhine and the Po."
M.
Guizot
forwarded
a
protest
to Vienna
against
the in-
corporation
of Cracow
with
the
Austrian
empire.
"
Nothing,"
said
the
French
minister,
"
more
compromises
a
government
than
an
avowal
of its
inability
to
fulfil,
even
slowly,
its
own
promises,
and the
hopes
which
it
has excited.
The
destruc-
tion of
the small
state of Cracow
may deprive
Polish
conspi-
rators and
insurgents
of some means of
action,
but it must
also foster
and
irritate the
feelings
'in which these
deplorable
enterprises
have so
frequently
and so
obstinately
originated,
and,
moreover,
weaken
the
influences
by
which
they might
be
prevented.
It
enfeebles
throughout Europe
the
principles
of
order
and
conservatism,
and
strengthens
blind
passions
and
violent
designs."
In
April,
1846,
conferences on this
grave
subject
were
opened
in
Vienna. Prussia
proposed
to retain Cracow as an
independent
and neutral
state,
under the
protectorate
of the
three
powers,
which
Russia
and
Austria
opposed.
Other
discussions
took
place,
in which there was no
unanimity.
At
length
Prince Metternich addressed a note to
the
French
government,
dated
the
6th
November, 1846,
which
ter-
minated with
the
following
words
:
—
"
The
conditions on
which
Cracow was constituted an
independent
state
once
vitiated,
lose all their
essential
qualities.
Its
institutions
are
annihilated,
its
neutrality
is
violated,
its administration
is
disorganised
;
and it
is
not
possible
to
reconstruct
what has
ceased
to
exist.
That
existence
reposed
on
the
principle
of
a
pacific
neutrality,
and
Cracow
only
wished
for
war. That
war Cracow has carried on
during
fifteen
years
of machina-
A.D.
1848]
SECRET
SOCIETIES
IN ItUSSIA.
409
tions,
sometimes
concealed,
sometimes
open,
and
maintained
it
up
to
the
very
moment
when
recourse
to arms
became
general.
The
natural
and
obvious
consequences
of these
relations
is,
that
the
city
and
its
territory
must
revert to
that one
of
the
powers
to
which
it
formerly
belonged.
This reunion
is
founded
on
the conviction
of the
three
powers,
that
it is
one
of
absolute
necessity,
which
they
do not
hesitate
to avow."
Prince
Metternicli
did
not
always
entertain
those
opinions.
On
the
9th of
February,
1818,
he
expressed
himself
thus
:
—
"
The
final act of
the
congress
of Vienna
is
undoubtedly
the
fundamental
law of
the
present
political
system
of
Europe,
since
it
has been
sanctioned
by
the
assent
of all
the
states
of
which
that
system
is
composed.
For this
reason,
the ar-
rangements
and
principles
which
are
set
down
on
this
act,
whether
they regard
any European
state
directly
or
indirectly,
have
been
obligatory
on
all."
However,
after
the
free
town
of
Cracow
was
suppressed,
he
asserted
that
the
three
north-
ern
powers
had a
right
to
act
without
the
co-operation
of the
other
powers
who had
signed
the
treaty
of
Vienna,
and even
in defiance
of
their wishes
and
protests.
Cracow
was for-
mally
annexed
to
Austria
on
the
11th
of
November,
1816
;
and
thus
disappeared
the last
remnant
of
Polish
nationality.
The socialistic
insurrection
of
Cracow
was a sudden
reve-
lation of
that
spirit
which
two
years
later
shook
Europe
to
its centre.
As
soon as
the
emperor
Nicholas
heard
of the
French
revolution
of
1818,
he said
to
the officers
of his
guards,
"
Gentlemen,
prepare
to
mount
your
horses."
But
tor
the second
time
his
intended march
to Paris
was
stopped
by
dangers
at
home,
for
secret societies
had
again
been
formed in
Russia,
as
in
the
reign
of
Alexander.
The
only
information
we have
respecting
them
is that
which
maybe
gathered
from
a semi-oilicial
manifesto in the
St.
Petersburg
Journal,
which was
evidently
communicated
by
the
govern-
ment.
"
The
pernicious
doctrines which
caused
troubles
and
revolts
throughout
all
Western
Europe,
and
which
threaten
completely
to
destroy
order and
the
prosperity
of
nations,
have
unfortunately
found
an
echo,
though
a
feeble
one,
in
our
own
country.
Put in
Russia,
where a
holy
faith,
the
love of
the
monarch,
and devotion to
the
throne,
based
on
tho
national
character,
have
been
preserved
unshaken
in
410
HISTORY OF
RUSSIA.
[CH.
LXX.
every
heart,
the
malevolent
action of
a
handful
of
men,
utterly
null
in
point
of
influence,
for the most
part
young
and destitute
of
morals,
dreaming
of
the
possibility
of
tramp-
ling
under foot the
most
sacred
rights
of
religion,
the
obliga-
tions
of
law,
and the
claims of
property,
could
only
assume a
dangerous
development
in case the
government
had
not dis-
covered the
evil
in its
source. The result
of
a
commission
of
inquiry
is,
that
a certain
number of
young
men,
some
really
perverse
in heart
and
mind,
others
imprudent
victims
to
perfidious
insinuations,
had
formed
a
secret
society,
having
for
its
object
the
violent overthrow of our
political
organisa-
tion,
and
to
substitute
anarchy
in its
place. Blasphemies,
audacious
propositions
directed
against
the sacred
person
of
the
emperor,
acts
of
the
government represented
in
the
falsest
light,
such was the
programme
of
these
meetings,
such
were
the
questions
discussed
while
awaiting
the moment
to'
put
their
infamous
projects
into
execution.
By
order
of his
majesty
the
commission of
inquiry
was instituted.
This
commission,
after five
months
of
searching
investigations,
has
prepared
and
delivered
its
report.
His
imperial majesty
has
deigned
to
accord
a
full
pardon
to all
who
were ensnared
into the
conspiracy,
whether
by
accident
or inconsiderateness.
As to
the
real
criminals,
they
were
judged by
a
court-martial,
whose
decision
declared the accused
guilty
of
the
crime
of
conspiring
to
overturn the
existing
laws and the
political
order
of
the
empire,
and
condemned them to be shot.
They
were
twenty-one
in
number.
His
majesty
the
emperor,
after
having
made himself
acquainted
with
the
report,
has
deigned
to direct his
attention to the circumstances
which,
to a certain
extent,
may mitigate
the
sentence,
and,
in
con-
sequence,
ordains as follows
:
—
The
judgment
shall
be read
to
the
twenty-one
convicts
in
presence
of
the assembled
troops
;
and
after all the
preliminaries
of the
execution
of sentence
of
death
shall
have been
performed,
it
will
be announced
to
them
that
the
emperor spares
their
lives,
and that
in
commu-
tation
of
the
sentence
pronounced
against
them,
they
shall
be
deprived
of
all
their civil
rights,
and condemned
in
propor-
tion to
their
degrees
of
culpability,
—
some
to hard labour in
the
mines,
others
to
hard
labour in
fortresses,
others
to
incorporation
with
different
corps
of
the
army,
after
having
undergone
a
longer
or
shorter
imprisonment.
Thus the
A.D.
1848-9]
INTERVENTION
IN
THE PRINCIPALITIES.
411
guilty,
who
have
merited
the sentence of
death
according
to
law,
commuted
by
the inexhaustible
clemency
of
the em-
peror,
will
undergo
a
just
punishment. May
this
culpable
at-
tempt
serve as a
warning
and a
salutary example
to
young
men
already
perhaps
led
astray,
but
not
yet
criminal
!
May
parents
especially
direct
their
particular
attention
to
the
moral
education of
their
children,
and
convince
them
from
their
earliest
years,
that a
holy
faith,
love
of the
sovereign,
devotedness to
the
throne,
with
obedience
to the laws
and the
established
authorities,
are the
only
firm foundations
of the
tranquillity
of
states,
as
they
are
of
general
and
individual
welfare!"
The
revolution
at
Bukharest was
the
first occasion
seized
by
the
emperor
Nicholas after
the
European
convulsion
of
1848 to
promote
the secret
ends of Eussian
policy,
whilst
ostensibly
acting
only
as
the
grand champion
of conservative
and
monarchical
principles.
An
imperial
manifesto,
dated
the
31st
July,
1848,
announced
that,
in
conjunction
with
the
sultan,
the
emperor
would
intervene
in the affairs
of
the in-
surgent
provinces,
under
the usual
pretext
of
defeating
any
effort that
might
be
made
"
to
impair
the
integrity
of
the
Ottoman
empire,
now
more essential
than
ever
to
the
main-
tenance of
general peace."
The revolution
was
summai'ily
suppressed,
and the
convention of
Balta Liman
was concluded
with
the
Sublime
Porte,
confirming
and
extending
the
pro-
tectoratr
exercised
by
Eussia over
the
principalities.
The
intervention
was
also
very
serviceable to
Eussia
in
securing
to
her
a
military
position
of
great
importance
with
regard
to
the invasion of
Hungary,
in
which
she next
engaged.
Twice
bad the
Austrian armies been
swept
out
of
Hungary
by
the
brave
Magyars,
ami
thai
kingdom
must
have been
lost
for
ever to
the
house
of
Hapsburg
but for
the aid afforded
it
by
the
emperor
Nicholas.
His
manifesto,
dated
the 8th
May,
L8
19,
was conceived
in the
following
terms :
"By
our manifesto
of
the 14-26
of
May
of
last
year,
we
informed
our
faithful
subjects
of
the evils
which
had
befallen
Western
Europe.
At that
date
we
declared
our
intention
of
combating
the
enemies of
public
order
wherever
they
might
be
found
—
of
protecting
the
honour
of the Eussian
name
and
the
inviolability
of our
frontiers,
identifying
our
own
person
in
indissoluble
union
with our
holy
Eussia.
Since
this,
dis-
412
UISTOBY
OF
KTTSSIA.
[CH.
LXX.
turbances and seditious movements have
never ceased in
the
east of
Europe. Culpable
enterprises
have led
astray
the
credulous
mob
by
the deceitful illusion of
a
happiness
which
never
arose from
anarchy
and
licentiousness. The criminal
attempts
have extended
to the
East,
in
the
principalities
ad-
ioining
our
empire
in Vallachia
and
Moldavia,
subject
to
the
Turkish
government.
The
entry
of our
troops
and
of the
Ottoman
troops
into
these
provinces
has
been sufficient there
to
establish
and maintain
tranquillity;
but in
Hungary
and
Transylvania
the
efforts
of the Austrian
government,
divided
by
war
on another
point
with
national and
foreign
enemies,
have
proved,,
up
to
this
day
unavailing
in
the
conquest
of
revolt. The
insurrection,
supported by
the influence
of our
traitors
in
Poland of the
year
1831,
and
by
reinforcements of
refugees
and
vagabonds
from
other
countries,
has
given
to
this
revolt a
most
menacing
character.
In the midst of these
disastrous
events,
his
majesty
the
emperor
of
Austria has
invited
us to
assist
him
against
the common
enemy:
we
cannot
refuse that service. After
having
invoked
the God
of
battles and the Master of victories to
protect
the
just
cause,
we
have ordered our
army
to march
to
stifle
revolt,
and
annihilate audacious anarchists who
threaten
the tran-
quillity
of our
provinces.
Let God be with
us,
and
none
can
resist
us,
of
which we are convinced.
Such are the senti-
ments
of
all our
subjects.
Every
Russian
shares
in this
hope,
and
Russia will
fulfil her
holy
mission."
Hungary
was
subjugated,
not so much
by
the
combined
forces of Austria
and
Russia,
as
by
the
treachery
of
general
Gorgei,
her commander-in-chief
;
nay,
it
is
probable
that if he
had not
purposely
fought
a
losing game,
he
might
have
anni-
hilated
the main
body
of
the
Russians
under
Paskievitch.
Instead
of
co-operating
to this end with
the
division
under
Dembinski,
he
sedulously
kept
aloof from
it,
and
after
Dem-
binski
had
been
routed
at
Temesvar on
the 9th
of
August,
he
had
himself
appointed
dictator,
and
immediately
sent
a
letter
to
general
Rudiger,
stating
that he
was
ready
to
lay
down his
arms
unconditionally.
"At that
moment,"
Gorgei
says
in
his
Memoirs,
"
I
might
indeed have
retreated
from
Arad,
by
way
of
Radna,
into
Transylvania
;
but"
—
what
hindered
him ?
—
"
my
affection for
my
country,
and
my
de-
sire
to restore
it
to
peace
at
any
price,
induced
me to
sur-